The Robert Glasper Experiment @ The Institute, Birmingham – 3rd April 2014

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Atmospheric chords, auto tune, coolness and synergy. Four words/phrase that could be use to describe Robert Glasper and friends tonight.

From the start everything felt a bit Kanye, sharp well-timed strumming of the keys, well paced drumming to set the metronome, but things got really, really Kanye when Glasper and friends don an auto-tune fuelled supersonic version of Kanye West vocals from “No Church In The Wild”. They were exceptional and as a quintet were the personification of cool.

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Glasper’s lead vocalist bellowed out some extraordinary vocals married with the best use of auto-tune I have ever heard – it was bewildering – cool, classy and well composed. Just when you got over what you just witnessed in the first two tracks, out of the blue the lead vocalist just grabbed a Saxaphone and blew us away. Glasper sat next to both his pianos looking like the Cheshire Cat, rather pleased with what he had orchestrated and so he should be. The crowd were pleased and Glasper was a business man looking at happy clients. These guys were exceptionally gifted – they knew it, we as the audience knew it and wherever their mothers were they were in on the open secret. They went for it! In every sense of those four words, and this was only the third track into the set.

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Glasper and his colleagues went on to perform some of the more instantly recognisable tracks from his critically acclaimed album “Black Radio 2” and his healthy back catalogue. The crowd, as expected, erupted. This was musical euphoria of another kind; the elements, inspiration and homage to many of the greats from the world of jazz could be heard and felt. It got a bit more current. Boom! The drummer found another gear, we got lucky, and they started doing a rendition of Daft Punk’s Get Lucky.

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We were then treated to the soulful voice of one Glasper’s singers. She was the party trick, the ace in the pack, a tribute to the bygone era of soulful divas who make their presence felt on stage with their graceful movement, excellent timing and charismatic energy. Her attention to detail on the notes was impeccable with a just as brilliant vocal range.

Cherokee, drum and bass, hip hop, soul, funk, classical, jazz, minimalist stripped back music and pop – just to name a few. You would struggle to find a genre of music that was not touched tonight. Eclectic epitomised Robert Glasper and friends tonight.
We felt the waves of creativity and energy coming out of Black Radio 2 tonight. One word to describe the audience. Entertained! You begin to understand why the show was titled the Robert Glasper Experience, this felt like a live art dissertation on the history of music.

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Right as we were about to give them the rapturous send off they deserve and send them on their way, just as the night started, it ends, with locally renowned and nationally respected artist, Soweto Kinch, who came back on stage and started jamming with the quartet that we had been rocking with all night. I felt as though I had one of my first profound “I was there” moments in live music, witnessing Soweto Kinch jamming with Robert Glasper! It has certainly been a night of live music I will not be forgetting anytime soon.

Review – Chadwick Jackson
Photos – Katja Ogrin

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